‘In 2008 Boris Johnson promised the most transparent administration in Britain after years of cronyism and maladministration in City Hall. It is why he released a brutally honest Progress Report on his manifesto commitments detailing where has had not made progress as well as where he has. As he entered the campaign he was determined to ensure there was no confusion between him as Mayor and him as a candidate and therefore changed the name of his Twitter account.

He did not expect this openness and honesty to have created such hysteria.

So in case there is even one Londoner who has a problem with what he did, he will not use that account for the campaign and instead can be followed from the political front on @BackBoris2012.’